A season premiere is the first episode of a new
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
of a returning
television show
A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed b ...
.
[ In the United States, many season premieres are aired in the fall time or, for ]mid-season replacement
In American network television scheduling, a mid-season replacement is a television show that premieres in the second half of the traditional television season, usually between December and May. Mid-season replacements usually take place after a ...
s, either in the spring or late winter.
In countries such as Australia and the UK, a season premiere can be broadcast at any time of the year. In Australia, the premieres of several shows are in mid- to late summer, late January or early February.
Mid-season premiere
In the 2000s, the terms "mid-season premiere" and "spring premiere" began being used by television broadcasters in the United States to denote the first episode after a mid-season hiatus, often following the holiday season leading into spring and summer months. As with a season/series premiere, a mid-season premiere can include a major plot development, cast change, or resolution to a cliffhanger ending that featured in the " mid-season finale" in order for networks to draw attention and encourage viewership of such episodes as event television Event television (sometimes used in verb form as the buzzword "eventize") is a television network marketing concept which arose in the early 2010s and is characterized by a shift in priorities towards enticing audiences to watch programming immedia ...
. The practice has faced criticism for affecting the structure and narrative of broadcast television programs, as writers may be coerced by broadcasters into placing cliffhangers and plot developments within the midseason, rather than allow a plot to build up to a traditional season finale leading into a following season premiere.
See also
* Season finale
A season finale (British English: last in the series; Australian English: season final) is the final episode of a season of a television program. This is often the final episode to be produced for a few months or longer, and, as such, will try ...
* Series premiere
* Series finale
References
Television terminology
{{Tv-stub